Finally diving into my L5. I think it's broken out of the box

Librem Phones (Librem 5)
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So I got my L5 back in April, but didn’t give it proper attention until now. I turned it on and opened a few apps, but never set it up or used it. Back in the box. Really busy with career stuff, no time for fun.

This week I started the plunge and am working to make it my primary phone!

There’s a lot of lacking features, even after the latest updates. But I am cool with this for the most part. I love the concept and I am totally willing to let some things slide.

However, I am on the second strike in terms of actual brokenness. And I am really curious to know if people are having any similar woes that aren’t just because features are still in development. Actual physical and basic component issues.

Strike one was actually when I did look at it back in April. When the screen is on, there is always a white dot at the bottom, near the bevel and off-center. It’s not a dead pixel – it’s about half a centimeter in diameter, brightest at the center and fading outwards. it’s definitely an imperfection in the screen, like how you would imagine some backlighting shining through.

At the time, I accepted that this would be something that I would just have to live with. A compromise for having this unique and long-awaited device.

Well now it appears something else is faulty. And I’ve upgraded the first issue to an actual strike and not just an oh well.

The Volume Down button doesn’t work! I press Volume Up, and the volume goes up as expected. Volume down… does nothing. Searched but didn’t see anyone mentioning a similar problem. I thought maybe the physical buttons can be mapped, and Volume Down just got unmapped. But I don’t see anything that controls this, so, kind of a bummer. Even if I hit the volume up and try to grab the scrollbar that pops up to turn it down instead, I can’t. I have to go into the settings and do it there. It sucks.

So yeah. There doesn’t appear to be any actual physical damage, and I certainly haven’t done anything to cause these things. Anyone else have similar lack of quality control?

Just wanna get some opinions and feedback, maybe there’s some fixes for this or known issues before I go and contact their support. I have to see if I can even get a replacement still or not, since it’s been a handful of months since I received it.

Cheers

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I don’t know what’s causing the problem with the volume, but you might consider just reflashing the OS now, before you make a lot of changes to the phone (which will be lost during flashing).

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It’s still under warranty though.

For the first issue, I would take a photo of the screen and discuss with Purism Support. You could post the photo here too. A picture is worth a thousand words.

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No, contact Purism support for your Librem 5 hardware issues.

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OK. Thanks for the replies. I took the picture, here it is.

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I really haven’t done much with the phone yet, so I am going to try Flashing it as suggested and see if that remedies the Volume issue.

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These look like hardware defects either from manufacturing or from mishandling during shipment. I did notice on my unit that the volume rocker would trigger a volume adjustment easier in one direction than the other, but it has self-adjusted from use. Your case seems different and you should go through support as others have mentioned.

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I contacted support and they want me to send them the phone. So looks like I’ll be doing that.

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Let us know later if your issues have been resolved by them once you receive it back.

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